Monday, February 20, 2012

Dalits is a catch-all term for people variously called 'Untouchables','Harijans' and the 'Scheduled Castes'. Chamars, the caste to which theChief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati, belongs, are the mostprominent among the Dalits. In Uttar Pradesh, Dalits constitute morethan two-fifths of the State population, and two-thirds of them areChamars. This community has had a difficult and chequered history. Byconvention, its occupation was to skin dead animals, tan the leather,and make articles out of it. An interesting aspect is that theproportion of Chamars engaged in leather-related occupation has beendeclining over decades — what was four per cent in 1931 came down to0.6 per cent in 1961. Yet, the occupational stereotype of the Chamarbeing a leather worker persists.

Agents of history

The book under review breaks this and also challenges the assumptionof colonial and nationalist historians that Chamars poisoned animalsso as to flay their skin and eke out a living. Above all, it seeks toestablish them as 'agents' of history, instead of being just passiverecipients.

The Annales School of France wanted historians to study problems ofthe present. Oliver Mendelsohn and Marika Vicziany in their book, TheUntouchables (1998), said the Dalits face three problems — poverty,discrimination, and low self-esteem. They did not mention'untouchability', as such, as an acute problem of the Dalits. In thisbook, Ramnarayan Rawat, explores untouchability. Untouchability maynot have been totally eradicated. But it does not strike the scholarsas the acutest problem of the Dalits now.

Reconsidering Untouchability, which looks into the life, history andaspirations of the Chamars in U.P., is noteworthy for three reasons.First, it brings new facts to light. Rawat has culled out data thatshow that more than 80 per cent of them are agriculturists, peasants,and farm workers.

Secondly, the book has some new methodological insights. Thecredibility of material available with government archives is alwaysopen to question. Nationalist historiography based itself on oralinterviews and memoirs. Subalterns insisted that we read the colonialarchives against their grain. Rawat found that the narrations based oninformation hubs like London and Delhi were less accurate. He prefersto draw on regional archives and information contained in localresources.

Thirdly, it is refreshingly devoid of any jargon (about subordination)and post-modern mumbo-jumbo regarding difference. It's a historian'sexpedition to familiar territory. Rawat questions, among others, theassertions of Gyanendra Pandey that Chamars did not participate inpeasant struggles and that they poisoned animals to get their skinscheap.

I do have a couple of bones to pick with the author. First, it isfashionable to be equidistant from colonial and nationalistscholarship. But, in doing so, Rawat seems cavalier about the ravagesof colonialism. We know that colonialism was propelled by greed, andthe debate about its consequence rages on. The question is whethercolonialism was rape or murder? Rawat approvingly quotes Chandra BhanPrasad who thinks "the British came too late and left too early." Heseems to imply that colonialism was like some philanthropic enterprisefor the Dalits. Secondly, Rawat, while using Hindi sources, hasmistranslated a few critical words. He calls murdamans beef; itactually means carrion. Worse is the use of achut. Rawat believes thatthe Dalits consider themselves achut or uncontaminated/pure. The wordachut actually means 'untouchable'. The correct word foruncontaminated is achuta or unchuaa. 'Untouched' is like Nature atsome pristine point. 'Pure' is like orthodox Chitpavan Brahmins, whoconsider no one else eligible to touch them.

On the other hand, in the case of the Dalits, it is social conventionthat makes them unworthy of being touched, and the orthodox culturalpractice that forbids others from mixing with them. They are condemnedto be achut or untouchable. A scholar who gets this wrong, risks thevalidity of his (or her) theoretical assertions.

BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa State Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe Youthand Students' Council has drawn the attention of the NationalCommission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) about the increasing torture ofthe dalits in the State.

Council president Haladhar Sethi discussed the matter with NCSCchairman PL Punia and invited him to visit Kamadhenukot village inDhenkanal district where 22 houses of the dalits were burnt after thefirst phase of the panchayat polls.

Sethi alleged that dalits were attacked as they did not vote for aparticular candidate in the panchayat polls as a result of which helost. He said supporters of the candidate vandalised the houses ofdalits in the village and burnt them down. Over 100 dalits are nowhomeless and exposed to more attacks, he said.

A three-member team of the council, headed by Sethi, visited thevillage on Monday and discussed with the tahasildar, the districtwelfare officer, the police circle inspector and the districtcollector.

The council demanded compensation to the dalit families who have losteverything because of the attack on them.

Hundreds of people belonging to SC Community resolved before BJPPradesh President Shri Vijender Gupta that they are completelydisillusioned with the Congress party and Government. CongressGovernment has made false promises to them to secure their votesduring the last 64 years. The dalits of the Country and Delhi fullyunderstand it. The dalits of Delhi have decided that only the BJP cando good to them. He told that in the forthcoming MCD elections,Assembly elections and Loksabha elections, lakhs of SC people shouldvote in favour of BJP and help to form BJP Government so that the lootof Congress may come to an end and everybody may be treated withrespect and equality.

On the 9th day of Jan Sangharsh Yatra today Yatra passed throughMundaka, Kirari, Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri and Nangloi AssemblyConstituency. Thousands of BJP workers and leaders stood on both sidesof the road and accorded unprecedented welcome to the PradeshPresident by showering flowers on him. Shri Gupta told that theCongress is so much busy in loot and it misappropriated 680 crorerupees of SC welfare fund which was part of the planned expenditure bytransferring the fund to the Games fund. When this was exposed thenChief Minister Sheila Dikshit told that this money will be refundedbut till date this money has not been refunded. Delhi Government is somuch anti dalit and it used insulting word like 'CHUDA' in the SCcertificate and insulted the dalits. BJP went to the court against itand only after that this world was dropped from the certificate. ChiefMinister Sheila Dikshit has not apologized for it. Just before the MCDelections many populist announcement have been made by DelhiGovernment. Shri Gupta has raised a question that from where theGovernment will arrange the money to fulfill the promises made?

Shri Gupta has further said that the Congress is the ruling party forthe last 13 years and it has promised that the people of SC Communitywill be provided free pucca houses. But not a single pucca house hasbeen provided to them by the Government. Government is so much antidalit that it demolished the colonies of dalits but did not madealternatives arrangements for them. During the chilly cold weatherthousands of dalits passed their nights in the open and not providedfood, ration and other essential commodities by the Government. PDSsystem has completely collapsed. The Government could not providefacilities of education, health, power, water etc. to the dalitchildren during the last 13 years. Congress has played fraud with thedalits again and again. But now they have awakened and understand thereality of the Congress Government.

Before the start of Jan Sangharsh Yatra today, National Secretary ofBJP Shri Shyam Jaju etc. addressed a public meeting in Karala Village.Shri Jaju told that this Yatra is for drastic change of Delhi. BJPPradesh President Shri Vijender Gupta has taken out this Yatra forpublic awareness among 2 crore people of Delhi. The people of Delhihave awakened. Congress Government has always betrayed the lakhs of SCfamilies and committed atrocities on them. Congress has used theirsentiments only for sake of votes. They have not been provided anyfacility in return. The people of dalit community will take revengefrom the Congress Government in the forthcoming elections. BJP willwin and work for the welfare of all.

Two things are clear at the end of the fourth phase of polling in UP:one, the ruling BSP faces the anti-incumbency factor which is fairlypervasive and, two, the Samajwadi Party is its main challenger.

A third important development is the emergence of the Congress as arespectable factor in state politics after a gap of more than twodecades. For the first time, none of its rivals is taking the Congresslightly, thanks to Rahul Gandhi's energetic campaigning and some deftmoves by the party.

The election process has already covered 226 of the 403 constituenciesin eastern and central UP. The remaining 177 constituencies, whichwill be covered in the last three phases, are mostly in western UP andparts of Bundelkhand.

The anti-incumbency factor against the BSP has much to do with thestate government's failure to provide a corruption-free administrationin its interface with the people. The voters' main grievance is thatthey are forced to pay bribes even for getting things like incomecertificates, caste certificates, police verification report for theissuance of passports, birth certificates, old-age pension, in shortalmost everything, like never before.

A second grievance is the "officer raj" where the voice of thepeople's representatives on issues of public interest has ceased tomatter. The third major charge is that the BSP government is onlytaking care of Dalits, and Prevention of Atrocities Against the SC Actwas being misused.

The SP seems to have been the most successful in tapping thisdisenchantment with the BSP. Its candidates were well placed in almostall regions which went to the polls in the first four phases, despitethe stigma of the lawlessness of the previous Mulayam Singh governmentand constant reminders by Chief Minister Mayawati, Rahul Gandhi andBJP leaders.

Apparently, young Akhilesh Yadav's appeal, and Mulayam Singh Yadav'sconstant reassurance that the SP would not repeat past mistakes, haveimproved its acceptability beyond its traditional supporters.

Also, although Muslims are no longer voting as a bloc, most of themstill seem to prefer the SP. Initially, Muslims in constituencies likeTanda in Ambedkar Nagar and Mubarakpur in Azamgarh were influenced bythe Congress announcement of the quota within OBC quota for backwardMuslims and the special package for weavers, but they later developedhesitation in fully backing the Congress.

However, the BSP's support among its core Dalit voters hasn't sufferedmuch erosion. It is mainly because the BSP rule has given the Dalits asense of security from dominant landed communities in rural areas and,generally, from the police which tended to side with the powerful.Although schemes like development of Ambedkar villages, allotment ofland to landless, and free houses under the Kanshiram Shahari GaribAwas Yojna have benefited people of all communities, the Dalits havebeen the largest section of beneficiaries.

The BSP is hoping that the unstinted support of Dalits, combined withthe division of anti-government votes among three main contenders —the SP, the Congress and the BJP — besides several smaller parties,will help it retain power.

The Congress decision to increase representation to OBCs, MBCs andMuslims and, among Dalits, the Koris and the Pasis in the selection ofcandidates has troubled both the BSP and the SP. Leaders in bothparties admit that the Congress is going to cut into their vote base.

This has also affected the BJP indirectly. For example, in Devipatanrange, which was traditionally considered to be a pro-BJP field due toits high Muslim population before the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Congresscandidates are reported to be locked in triangular or four-corneredcontests in many seats. In many urban areas too, the Congresscandidates are well placed.

Rahul Gandhi's campainging has created a situation where no party canafford to take the Congress lightly. The Congress as a respectablefactor is back in political debates after a gap of more than twodecades.

Like the Congress, the BJP has also tried its own version ofMandalisation in ticket distribution, although on a smaller scale. Theparty is hoping to boost its tally from polarization of Hindus votesas a reaction to wooing of Muslims by the SP and the Congress, andsmaller outfits like the Peace Party. It is highlighting the weavers'package, the quota within quota, Congress leaders' contradictorystatements on the Batla House encounter, and statements of LawMinister Salman Khurshid and Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma onMuslim quota as evidence of the Congress's appeasement policy.

The campaigning by Babu Singh Kushwaha, Mayawati's former familywelfare minister who is an accused in the NRHM scam, may help the BJPto an extent in Bundelkhand and some other areas by getting Kushwahavotes, but it is double-edged sword which may also harm the party inurban areas.

Whatever the claims, the heavy polling in all four phases seems tohave foxed all parties. Opposition parties believe that it reflects astrong anti-government sentiment driving the voters, but are not surewhom it will help. BSP leaders hope the high polling is driven byDalits. Behind the conjectures is the fact that, for the first time,about 60 per cent voters are 40 years or younger.

Rejects accusations of corruption made by Rahul Gandhi; says her policies empowered various groups A Staff Writer

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati said her Bahujan Samaj Party would return to power with a clear majority in an interview with the Al Jazeera English television channel.

She derided the challenge posed by Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party and dismissed reports that there wouldn't be a clear verdict in the ongoing state polls, saying that a hung House had also been predicted in the elections of 2007 that she won.

Mayawati said that a political conspiracy aimed at destabilizing the country's biggest state would fail as the people would reject such moves. "The state, which has had a history of instability, is being sought to be destabilized again for political motives," she said.

Elections are being held in seven phases in Uttar Pradesh to determine who will rule India's most politically crucial state.

Key rivals of Mayawati's ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) include Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP), the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Uttar Pradesh has had 40 chief ministers since India's independence in 1947, the most in the history of India's states. It also chooses the largest number of members of Parliament among the states.

Mayawati dismissed the challenge of the Congress party led by general secretary Gandhi, saying that his campaign was with an eye solely on the 2014 general elections.

"For the Gandhi family, the UP elections have always been a big picnic. Brother-sister-mother, and now even brother-in-law, come for outings, sometimes with foreign friends," Mayawati said in the interview with the channel.

Gandhi has been campaigning vigorously in the state in a bid to revive the party's fortunes in the state. His mother and Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka have also been seeking support from voters. Brother-in-law Robert Vadra, who has hitherto stayed away from politics in public, has also put in an appearance.

Mayawati said people would vote for her as she had fulfilled promises made in the 2007 elections, adding that law and order had been restored after an alleged reign of terror under the previous administration headed by the Samajwadi Party.

"People voted for us in the hope that we will get rid of goonda raj," she said in the Al Jazeera interview. "The criminals of the Samajwadi Party had made life difficult for the people of this state. For the last five years we have changed that. We have given a government where people feel safe and the criminal is scared."

She rejected accusations of corruption made by Rahul Gandhi against the BSP, saying that it was the rival party that was guilty of siphoning off public money.

Mayawati said her policies had empowered various groups. "We have given Dalits a life of dignity and Brahmins, who were exploited by Congress and BJP alike, were given their due by BSP."

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

21 Feb, 2012, 01.03AM IST, Man Mohan Rai,ET Bureau Mayawati sucks happiness of sugar mills to give one sweet deal to 3.5 million sugarcane farmers in UP Passing by dense sugarcane and mustard fields, and potholed tracks on the outskirts of rural Lakhimpur Kheri, one reaches the large residential enclave of Mithun Kumar on the Uttar Pradesh-Nepal border.

Introductions done, the 52-year-old proudly informs he has just booked a 2,000 sq ft plot in the upcoming Omaxe City township in Lucknow. "It will also have a club house and a mini golf-course once fully developed," he adds.

As farmers in UP go, Kumar is well off, and has become even better off in the past two years. This year, he sold cane worth Rs 6 lakh and expects to add another Rs 2 lakh when he clears his fields by end-March. Last year, he sold cane worth Rs 6 lakh.

It's not a bumper crop, but it's a bumper realisation. For the fourth straight year, the Mayawati-led UP government has effected a chunky increase in the price sugar mills in the state have to pay farmers for cane. This year, the increase in the state advised price (SAP) of the normal variety of cane is 17%, taking the increase under Mayawati's tenure to 92%.

Put another way, farmer incomes would have doubled for the same level of cane produced. By comparison, in the preceding five years, when Mulayam Singh Yadav, her bete noire, was the chief minister, the increase in cane prices was 32%.

In UP, when it comes to political capital, cane follows only caste, and Mayawati has the numbers on her side. sugar is the largest industry in UP and, according to Mukesh Gautam, director agriculture, UP, cane accounts for 14% of the area under cultivation in the state.

Mayawati has given one sweet deal to 3.5 million farmers, mostly sucking, in the process, the happiness of about 125 sugar mills. If the core of Mulayam's sugar policy was to incentivise mills to expand capacity, Mayawati tore into them - in the fields, at the policy table and in the courts. Her administration reversed Mulayam's sugar policy, that too with retrospective effect, and slapped cases against prominent mill owners for allegedly giving an unfair deal to farmers.

Instead, her singular focus has been the farmer, who has benefited from not only higher cane prices, but also from speedier payments and a growing clout.

Mayawati has set new standards on cane prices. Not only are cane prices irreversible - no government will dare cut them - the other political parties are posturing to cut an even sweeter deal to farmers. For example, the BJP, whose election manifesto devotes almost two pages to cane, says it will increase the SAP by 25% to Rs 300 per quintal next year.

/photo.cms?msid=11968909

/photo.cms?msid=11968912

The Congress and Samajwadi Party, in their respective manifestos, too assure policy changes to yield similar outcomes. "Cane SAP has become a political tool for most parties," says Abinash Verma, general secretary, Indian Sugar Mills Association, the main grouping of sugar mills. "It is not just about this year or any government in particular."

In a February 8 letter to the Centre and UP government demanding a relief package, ISMA estimated that sugar mills in UP will lose Rs 3,750 crore this year. It complains that companies have exhausted their working capital and banks have stopped lending. The Mayawati administration's typical response to such missives has been to look the other way.

Mayawati versus mills

The steepest increase in cane prices - of 46% - has happened in the last two years, leading up to the state elections. Between 2009-10 and 2011-12, by comparison, the support price of paddy and wheat fixed by the Centre increased 8% and 4%, respectively, according to the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices.

It's politics, says Dr GSC Rao, president of the Sugarcane Technologists Association of India and the executive director of Simbhaoli Sugar Mills. "Every politician talks about increasing the support price of cane, but not wheat or paddy," he says.

"That's because private millers pay for cane, while the state pays for most of the wheat or paddy." With private sugar mills paying, under Mayawati, incomes of cane farmers have more than doubled.

Spurred by the higher prices, they have increased the area under cane cultivation. According to UP sugarcane department, the area under cane cultivation, peaked at 28.5 lakh hectares in 2007-08, but plunged to 17.88 lakh hectares in 2009-10. It's rising again, standing at 22.5 lakh hectares in 2011-12.

The state government has estimated that farmers should realise Rs 16,000 crore by selling cane to mills this year - a near three-fold increase over the 2008-09 figure of Rs 5,700 crore. Equally importantly for farmers, the Mayawati administration has ensured that, in another departure from the past, mills do not delay farmer payments.

Till about five years ago, cane arrears of 50% was the norm, says Lucknow University professor Sudhir Panwar who is also the president of Kisan Jagriti Manch, a grouping of farmers. Sugar mills would challenge the SAP fixed by the state government in court, and hold back payments to farmers. "Cane arrears have reduced in the last three or four years," says Panwar.

"Payments are mostly on time, though a few issues remain." Even for the ongoing season, the Eastern UP Sugar Mills Association challenged the SAP in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, terming it "unreasonably high". On February 10, the court ruled the SAP was "neither excessive nor unreasonable", and fined the petitioners Rs 50 lakh.

A senior official of a private sugar mill, speaking on the condition of anonymity, alleges the Mayawati administration forced companies to start their mills earlier than usual.

The crushing season is usually from end-November to mid-March, extending latest till the first week of April. "They wanted farmers to start encashing their crops as the election momentum picked up," he says. "This has led to a lower amount of sugar being extracted from cane."

Mayawati versus Mulayam

The hostility felt by private sugar mills towards the Mayawati administration is a contrast to the generosity of the Mulayam regime. A 2004 scheme gave liberal incentives - like capital subsidy, entry tax exemption, and reimbursement of transport cost, stamp duty, registration charges and purchase tax - for 5-10 years to companies investing above Rs 350 crore in new sugar capacity. /photo.cms?msid=11968930

Biggies like Balrampur Chini Mills and Bajaj Hindusthan rushed in. For example, Bajaj Hindusthan, whose entire sugar business is in UP, increased its capacity five-fold, with Mulayam even inaugurating some of those plants.

However, soon after taking over in May 2007, the Mayawati administration scrapped the scheme, that too with retrospective effect, saying the policy was not comprehensive and that certain incentives were not needed. In one stroke, in the state where vendetta politics run high, Mayawati had demolished whatever Mulayam had created.

Sugar mills were left saddled with new capacity, with deteriorating economics. This was to prove just the first of many flashpoints between the Mayawati administration and sugar mills. Last December, the state government lodged FIRs against top executives of a few sugar companies operating in the state for alleged under-weighing of cane.

The executives charged included Bajaj Hindusthan chairman Shishir Bajaj and MD Kushagra Bajaj, Balrampur Chinni Mills chairman Vivek Saraogi, and Triveni group MD Dhruv Mohan Sawhney. The executives approached the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, which has stayed any government action against the millers.

The private mill official quoted earlier says governments arm-twist companies to pay up. "Politicians see us as easy targets and party funders," he says. "If you try to avoid, they come down on you like a ton of bricks. They file FIRs, seize sugar stocks, stop distilleries from functioning, and more."

All four industry officials that ET spoke to expressed anger and frustration that they neither have control on the input or the output side. "State governments, at times, do not fix the SAP in a transparent manner and act arbitrarily, which leads to a situation where either the miller or the farmer takes a hit," says Verma of ISMA.

/photo.cms?msid=11968937

/photo.cms?msid=11968939

/photo.cms?msid=11968940

The Lucknow HC, on February 10, conceded this point while dismissing the plea of a sugar mills association that the SAP for 2011-12 was high. "There appears to be no uniform principle adopted by the government with regard to fixation of cane price," it observed in its judgment. "SAP should be linked to input price and the consumer price index," says Professor Panwar of Lucknow University.

What makes it worse is that mills have to hand 10% of their produce at 60-65% of the market price to the government public distribution scheme (PDS) and they don't have the freedom to export sugar. "How can we pay high cane price and not be allowed to sell our produce (sugar) at market rates?" he says. "Every commodity explores its own market price, except sugar, which has seen repeated government intervention to keep it subdued."

Mayawati versus Congress

In terms of return on political capital, the government intervention is seen another way. The Rs 16,000 crore that UP sugar mills will pay cane farmers this year is about four times the state's Rs 3,600 crore labour outlay of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which is credited with the Congress Party's improved showing in the state in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

"It (higher cane prices) was a clever and ingenious way to woo the farmers, and it cost the state exchequer next to nothing," says Professor Panwar.

The impact of the higher cane payouts is pronounced and visible. For example, Parmanand Shukla of Razaganj village in Lakhimpur Kheri district has moved on from a Maruti Alto to a Mahindra Xylo.

Mahindra & Mahindra even opened a dealership in the district in October 2011. "There was some consideration whether it would be a wise expansion, but sales have crossed expectations," says Arun Malhotra, senior VP, sales and customer care, Mahindra & Mahindra.

Malhotra says his company is seeing greater sales growth in rural and semi-urban areas in UP than its cities. S Sivakumar of ITC adds that economic growth in villages of western and central UP - both sugarcane belts - has been good in the recent past.

"Higher incomes are fuelling consumption in many segments such as packaged consumer goods, farm inputs, mobile phones, and two- and four- wheelers, says the divisional chief executive of ITC's agri-business division. "Many farmers now send their children to better schools in nearby towns." All this has helped Mayawati claim the high ground in sugar - for now. It's a place coveted in UP politics.

When Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi first took charge of the party's campaign in UP in the run up to the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he raised two issues: the state of drought-hit Bundelkhand, a stronghold of Mayawati's party, and the condition of the sugarcane farmer.

In November 2009, thousands of farmers, led by the late farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh, gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to protest against a new Centre pricing mechanism they feared would give them less.

Within hours, Gandhi met the Prime Minister, and the Centre announced it would not go ahead with any proposal cane farmers were against. The Congress had since tried to blunt Mayawati by entering into a poll alliance with Ajit Singh of RLD, which has sizeable influence in Western UP; Singh was made the Union civil-aviation minister in December 2011.

Professor Panwar says Mayawati's record on cane prices will be a factor this elections, but not the only one. Agrees Rajpal Singh, a 23-year-old student in Shahjahanpur, whose family grows cane on 70 bighas. "Our families are much better off than they were earlier, but it's not entirely Mayawati's doing," he says.

"Farmers, especially in western UP, are getting increasingly assertive and demanding a fair deal. Look at anti-land acquisition protests in western UP, especially in Tappal, Bhatta and Parsaul, and how farmers opposed the government." Panwar feels farmer unity is taking a new shape over the last year or so.

"They have now started uniting under a non-political platform to raise issues concerning their farm, as the realisation has dawned on them that political parties easily divide them on caste lines," he says. And some part of the empowerment can be attributed to the way Mayawati has dealt with sugar prices.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

HATHRAS: BSP supremo and UP chief minister Mayawati while slamming theCongress party for its conspiracy of providing reservation to theMuslims by out of the backward reservation quota said that Congressitself is responsible for the backwardness of the Muslim community."After the country's independence, the Congress, which remained inpower for more than four decades, did not formulate policies andprogrammes for the betterment of the Muslims. Now, at the time ofelection, they are being befooled in the name of giving them 9%reservation," alleged Mayawati.

Muslims know very well that Congress is again using them as vote bank,she added. Addressing an election meeting on Monday, the BSP chiefalso charged the Congress, BJP and their allies of hatching aconspiracy to infringe upon the constitutional rights of the dalits byending the provision of reservation given to the SC/ST categories bythe Constitution. The BSP will never allow these parties to succeed intheir designs under any circumstances, she warned.

Reminding the people about the `jungle raj' of the Samajwadi Party(SP) government in UP, Mayawati cautioned the people to remain alertwhile casting their votes because if SP came to power, the goondas andmafias would raise their heads again.

The BSP government, she said, had dealt the SP goons with an iron handand put the anti-social elements in jail. She also asked the people toensure the defeat of the BJP candidates in the assembly electionbecause if it came to power, it would implement its communal andfascist agenda and minorities, particularly Muslims would suffer themost.

Attacking the Congress on the issue of corruption Mayawati said that62 scams of Rs 20 lakh crore took place in the Congress-led UPAgovernment at the Centre. She asked why the party was not uttering asingle word on graft and price-rise in its regime. Enumerating theachievements of the BSP government, Mayawati said that the oppositionparties were making hue and cry over the law and order situation in UPbut the fact is that the law and order is far better in UP incomparison to the states ruled by the Congress and the BJP.

"The BSP has given the best government to the 'sarva samaj', itimproved the power situation in the state, increased the cane pricesfrom Rs 125 per quintal to Rs 250 per quintal and formulated schemesfor the all-round development of villages and cities".

She has appealed to the people not to get misled by the oppositionparties' propaganda and ensure victory of the BSP candidates with athumping majority in the light of the works done by the government.

Once an ardent Maya fan, now 25 and a Samajwadi Party candidateManish Sahu Posted online: Tue Feb 21 2012, 03:45 hrsLucknow : At 25, Kiran Ramesh Chandra Jatav might possibly be theyoungest candidate in the UP elections. And by that age, she hasalready been let down by a party she once idolised and gone on to joinanother.

Kiran, a postgraduate in political science, and her Dalit family usedto be ardent BSP supporters and admirers of Mayawati. That changed in2008, after Kiran arrived in Lucknow hoping to meet Mayawati andcomplain that the district administration had refused pensions toabout 250 women of her Lala Mohammadpur village in Meerut.

She was denied access to Mayawati. She started a dharna in front ofthe Assembly and was sent to jail. It was the Samajwadi Party thatintervened and arranged legal help for her release 15 days later.

She has been dedicated to the SP since, participating in itsprogrammes. The party has now fielded her from Hapur, a seat held bythe BSP.

"The party cleared my name last May," she says. "In my speeches, Itell people I will be their postwoman and raise their issues in theAssembly."

Kiran, daughter of Shyam Kor Devi and Ramesh Chandra, who works as aguard, is the youngest of six children, four of them girls. Hapurbeing 25km from home, she has rented a house to run her campaign.

Her first tryst with politics came when she was visiting her sisterSuneeta in Meerut in 2008. Some elderly women approached her, hopingthat she, being educated, could help them get their pensions. Shehelped 250 women fill up forms but "the social welfare officerwouldn't accept them, saying they didn't have the funds".

When the district magistrate too pleaded helplessness, she sat on afast, calling it off four days later when officials promised to hold acamp within three days. At the camp, however, all but seven of theforms were rejected.

That October, Kiran set off on a bicycle procession to Lucknow and metthe OSD to the CM. The latter assured a solution in 15 days, thepolice sent her back to Meerut, and the deadline passed.

As Kiran kept on staging dharnas, her elders frequently scolded herand she started living with her sister in Meerut. In December, she setoff on a padyatra to meet the CM and reached Lucknow in a fortnight.Before arresting them for the dharna outside the Assembly, shealleges, the police beat them up.

It was after their release 15 days later that she learnt about thelegal assistance arranged by Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh.She met and thanked Mulayam, and was soon participating in partyevents.

Once, she tied a rakhi to Akhilesh's wrist. "The purpose was to drivehome the point that Yadavs and Jatavs can come on the same platform,"she says.

The ticket came after she had applied forone, on the advice of asenior SP leader. And the elders in her family, who were once angryabout her agitations, are now joyfully helping in the campaign.

"The Congress is not uttering a word on corruption and price rise in its regime. If you all made a mistake while exercising franchise, you all have to face life of insult and hooliganism," she said while addressing an election meeting.

Attacking the Congress for defaming her government on the issue of corruption, Mayawati alleged 62 scams of Rs 20 lakh crore took place in the Congress-led government at the Centre. Promising to provide 24-hour electricity, Mayawati said contrary to Oppositions' claim, BSP would get absolute majority in the state.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

Mayawati is scared of Rahul: Congress 21 Feb 2012, 0938 hrs IST, TIMES NOW Rahul Gandhi's Kanpur road show ran into trouble with an FIR being registered against Rahul and 40 others. The congress is standing by its leader saying he didn't flout any norms even as the BJP accuses Rahul of deliberately challenging the Election commission.

It was this road show of the Gandhi scion that ran into massive trouble when an fir was slapped against Rahul and 40 others for deviating from the set route.

The road show became the latest political flashpoint giving the opposition the chance to tear into the congress over this incident and the spate of violations in the recent past.

A political blame game is what ensued with the congress hitting out at the Mayawati government, continuing to staunchly support Rahul.

But all eyes are on the Election Commission now as their action and decision on not one but 3 congress leaders and one ally will determine their tough posturing.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

AGRA: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is set to hold a mega rally in Agra Tuesday, one of the biggest during the seven-phased assembly elections.

People from distant places have already started inching towards the Kothi Meena Bazar ground in the Shah Ganj area in a dazzling display of power and influence in the Dalit capital of northern India.

"More than what she says, it will be the turnout that will be demonstrative of her hold on the voters of the party," said activist Naresh Paras about Mayawati, who is also the chief of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party that champions the cause of Dalits.

Preparations have been going on for the past three days with stage and sound engineers from Lucknow specially summoned to execute the event in style.

Agra's traffic schedule has been changed for the day with heavy vehicles being diverted from the city's life line, the Mahatma Gandhi Road. A helipad close to the stage is ready and the whole ground gives the impression of a blue ocean with banners, flags and cut-outs.

Agra goes to polls Feb 28 in the penultimate round of the polls. All parties are now totally concentrating on western Uttar Pradesh, which could decide who will rule the state.

The Congress held road shows with actors Raveena Tandon and Sanjay Dutt Monday evening. Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh are scheduled to address a series of meetings in the next few days, intensifying campaigning.

The rallies of the BJP and the joint rally of the Congress and RLD in the past week have been rather unimpressive in terms of crowd mobilisation.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

Ghaziabad, Feb 19 : Claiming party chief Mayawati was notanti-Brahmin, BSP general secretary Satish Mishra on Saturday said theperception about UP chief minister was created by "miscreants" toconfuse the community.

"Some miscreants have created confusion in the minds of Brahmin votersby saying that Mayawati is anti Brahmin, but it is wrong and she hasproved that she regards all castes, including Brahmins and Baniyas,"Mishra said at an election meeting in Vaishali colony here.

He said all parties were criticising the chief minister for buildingstatues, but Dalits favoured it. "Today all other parties are harpingagainst Mayawati for spending money on statues but Dalits favouredit," he said.

The BSP leader claimed Mayawati was the only chief minister in UPafter independence who has completed five years term because she gavegood administration and all-round development to the state.

During Mulayam Singh's tenure, it was goonda raj, but now it is knownas better raj, Mishra said. He said the decision of the electioncommission to cover the statues of Mayawati and elephants hadbenefitted the CM as it was not liked by poor voters.

I congratulate you for bringing the book on Fuley. I do not agree to the statement that Fuley was Hindu. He derided Hindu religion and how still he can be called Hindu? He founded "Sarvajanik Satya Dharma" (Religion based on Common Truth) to counter Hinduism. In all his life he was against Hindu ideology. He was also for multy religion family. He said in a single family the members can adopt different religions like Christain, Islam, Buddha or Sikhism. He did not mention Hinduism.

This startling black and white graphic book is the latest offering from Navayana, India's first and only publishing house to focus exclusively on the issue of caste from an anti-caste perspective. Navayana means New Vehicle, and it was the word that Ambedkar chose to give to the new school of Indian Buddhists-those who, like him, renounced the caste system by renouncing Hinduism altogether. Of the two founders of the Navayana publishing house, one was elected as a Dalit Panthers MLA to the Tamil Nadu Assembly, and the other is a former journalist. On their website they invite manuscripts on caste issues, and this welcoming attitude must have encouraged Srividya Natarajan and Aparajita Ninan as they created this pictorial biography of the 19th century Maharashtrian social reformer Jotiba Phule and his wife Savitribai.

Jotiba Phule had great ambitions for the Sudras and Ati-Sudras, and saw equal rights to education for all as the means to fulfil those ambitions. He and his wife ran schools, and stood up not just for widow remarriage but for a wide range of women's rights. However, Phule probably never imagined that he and Savitribai would become such potent symbols in 21st century India for the sections of society they represented. All over the country, educational institutions are coming up in their names. I saw one of them beside the highway from Jaipur to Delhi-the site for a Mahatma Jotiba Phule University.

This book clearly reveals why he and Savitribai, whom he married when she was just eight years old, were so remarkable and why they remain such potent symbols today. The title A Gardener in the Wasteland refers to the fact that they belonged to the Mali caste and spent their lives trying to clear the wasteland of caste and grow a healthy society. Their opponents in Maharashtra were the Brahmins, depicted in the book as hairy, heavily moustached thugs in dhotis, whom Phule believed had used religion to enslave other castes, especially the lower castes and untouchables. To fight back, Phule, who himself suffered oppression, used the pen. In his writings he ridiculed the scriptures that he was convinced were created as instruments of enslavement. Ninan and Natarajan's lively pictures illustrate his spirited and rational demolition of the Vedas, the Puranas, and the Laws of Manu. For Phule, Parashuram was a genocidal maniac and Vamana a deceiver and slimebag who destroyed the golden age of Bali. Phule mocks Brahma's giving birth to the four varnas by arguing that this meant he had vaginas in his mouth, arms, groin and legs and would have spent most of the month menstruating.

Natarajan and Ninan also explain why he did not feel any sympathy for the leaders of the nascent freedom movement. He owed his own education to a Scotsman and drew inspiration for his cause from the emancipation of slaves in the United States. He could have had little hope of justice from any caste Hindu-led organisation.

It's not only the illustrations in this book that are black and white. The story too is one of stark opposites. The authors admit that in a graphic book they cannot include all the nuances and details of this courageous and determined couple's life. For example, although Phule derided Brahmanism, he remained a Hindu and is said to have adopted a boy who happened to be a Brahmin. But they can inspire their readers to try and understand the world from the perspectives of those who have been underdogs for centuries.

---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/